[Dodgers fan]

His publicist said he is ashamed - I doubt Mel crafted that statement himself.

[veronica]

The statement was probably written by Nierob's office and cleared with Mel. I suspect Nierob crafted another version with a more pointed apology to the Jewish community, which Gibson rejected.

It indicates to me that Mel is still holding fast to his bigoted views, refusing to go the extra mile and cop to his attitude (unless intoxicated.) Just as when he stated that "lots of people died in WWII, some of them were Jews" - just as when he said his Holocaust-denying father "never lied to him", he skirts the core of the matter. He's really a classic anti-semite. How he managed to hide that in Hollywood is beyond me. He deserves a Best Actor Oscar just for that performance alone. :)

[olderwiser]

Well, Mel will have plenty of opportunities in the upcoming days to either renounce or stand by his statements about Jews.